Mondello’s Waiting Game

State GOP Chairman Joe Mondello said he will “absolutely wait a couple of months,” before choosing which Republican presidential candidate to endorse.

In the meantime, Mondello is unapologetic about using all three of the top GOP hopefuls (Giuliani, McCain, Romney) as a draw to his $1,000-a-head May 17 dinner at the Sheraton in Manhattan.

“We need a shot in the arm. The entire Republican Party does, and so do we in the state committee,” Mondello said. “We were left with very little money – actually, no funds at all.”

“A lot can happen, you know, between now and the next month or so. I have to let things develop a little more…I’m not going to make a decision, certainly, before my event.”

“I’m going to really enjoy it when they’re all here in New York State, and I’m making a few bucks.”Â

The state GOP currently has $95,549 in its “reporting” campaign committee. In mid January, it had $267,438 in its housekeeping committee. Â

When he became chairman last December, Mondello said, he “quickly found we had no money in our coffers – just enough to payÂ the one secretary we had until the second week inÂ January.”

HeÂ first thought was to reconstitute the annual state GOP dinner, and heÂ put in a call to Rudy Giuliani,Â thinking the ex-mayorÂ would be a great draw as a keynote speaker. Â

“I did not get a response,” Mondello recalled. “I called a second time. No response. Three times. Four times. Then Tony (Santino, Mondello’s aide) called a bunch of times. No response.”

In the meantime, Mondello said, he sent out letters of invitation to Giuliani, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Az, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

A few weeks later, Mondello recounted, McCain called to wish the new chairman good luck. (“He said, ‘I don’t know whether to offer you congratulations, or condolences,'” Mondello recalled. “We both laughed”).

Since Giuliani hadn’t yet responded, Mondello asked McCain to speak on May 17. He agreed.

“Within five days, my phone started ringing. It was the Giuliani people, saying: ‘How come you didn’t reach out to us?'” Mondello said. “Then I got a little upset. I said: I did reach out to you. My calls weren’t returned. We could have settled all of this if I sent you my bills and you paid them.”Â Â

And then Romney called. And next thing you know, Mondello had a trifecta on his hands.

“I’ve got three top hitters coming to my event, and I’m very pleased about that,” Mondello said. “I did what I had to do. let me tell you, I’m extremely fond of Rudy Giuliani. I have nothing against him. I would have been pleased if he had accepted.”

Mondello is close to former state GOP Chairman Bill Powers, who is now co-chairing Giuliani’s New York campaign. TheÂ Nassau County GOPÂ chairman wasÂ tight withÂ Powers and then-U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’AmatoÂ back inÂ 1994 when they engineeredÂ then-state Sen. George Pataki’s campaign for governor and Giuliani angered the party leaders by endorsing former Democraic Gov. Mario Cuomo instead.

But Mondello insists he “never had a cross word” withÂ Giuliani.Â

As for McCain, the chairman called him a “fine American, and excellent senator, and a war hero.” Mondello backed then-Texas Gov. George Bush against McCain in 2000 back when Powers and Pataki were working to keep the senator off the NY primary ballot.

Mondello said he doesn’t know Romney at all, but rceived a congratulatory call from the former governor after he became chairman.